The mission is to escape the rat race by boat. To adapt to a even more frugal lifestyle choice.

Building the boat is a go. It is a realistic attainable goal. Building a boat isn’t rocket science. But, building it to last, takes some money spent in the right places. I want the best value for the right kind of electronics. I want redundancy where it counts. I want it to take a decade or more of hard use.

I start the hull Mid April after the kayak trip is done. A part time J.O.B made all the difference here. It allows me to go a grade or more up in the material choices all around. Most importantly I wanted a triple layer of fiberglass on the on the outer hull. I wanted the best epoxy grade I could afford also. I wasn’t about to compromise on that at all. Now I don’t have to. That will speed up the assembly time by several weeks. It also reduced my stress level to zero. Everything, still is a pay as you go project and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The only things left on the table, are the floor plans for the cabin’s and the name. I have a few names, but none are the sticking kind.

He used plywood on the hull that was 50% thicker than what the design called for. It made assembly a lot harder, but the boat is over 12 years old and still looks great. The weight penalty wasn’t too bad.

“Water Wagon” Through Florida Waterways By Scow and Outboard. by Rube Allyn was a long time inspiration for me. I lost the book some years back and was only reminded of it a few days ago in the shanty boat group on Yahell. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b725313;seq=9;view=1up;num=iii#page/n8/mode/1up
Another inspiration is the AS-19 By Bolger. ( Scow Sharpie boat) Now I based my hull on the best features of those two boats. I based the hull thickness from a refit description of one of the original AS-19’s. Then there’s some Trilobyte in the mix and some Payson ideas, as well as some Michalak influences too.
I broke one rule of thumb, 3 feet of linear hull for every one foot of beam. I’m at 8×20 and I would rather be at 8×24. This bow will rise up with a 3 hp at 3/4 throttle. Bad juju for a motor boat but fine for a sailor. It’s a deceptively fast hull. No doubts there. My first test for it, is the self righting and the second is to sail her on to a beach while swamped. A lot of the cabin space is more psychological than actual as it seems more than less. While the room is more at eye level it is less down low due to internal water tight compartments down the sides. My figures indicate 6-9 inches of draft at full load. She can mount 2 crab claws or 2 balanced lugs, one fore, one aft. After all this, I’m at a loss where to stow my bike. : )